Data Collection for Midwives
Since 2014, Washington State midwifery law has included mandatory data collection as a provision for licensure renewal. This accountability measure is a tremendous benefit to midwives, midwifery consumers, policymakers, and payers. It enables midwives to engage in meaningful quality improvement activities both within the midwifery community and in the larger perinatal healthcare arena. Analyzing aggregated community-based birth outcomes allows MAWS to inform its members about best practice, promote the benefits of the midwifery model of care, and make the case for increased access to normal physiologic birth in all birth settings. Data collection bolsters midwives’ participation in perinatal quality collaboratives and in statewide and national legislative efforts. Capturing our data allows midwives to demonstrate what we do well in a tangible, measurable way.
RCW 18.50.102 and WAC 246-834-370 do not specify a particular database that licensed midwives in WA must use, however, the law does require midwives to submit their data to “a state or national research organization approved by the Department of Health.” Historically, there were two DOH-approved repositories: MANA Stats, the national midwifery database once affiliated with the Midwives’ Alliance of North America (now dissolved); and the Perinatal Data Registry or PDR (American Association of Birth Centers).
Now there is a third approved data repository, the Community Birth Data Registry (CBDR) at the Foundation for Health Care Quality (FHCQ). FHCQ is a non-profit, neutral entity, based in Seattle, that houses a suite of programs centered around quality improvement and patient safety, including the Obstetrical Care Outcomes Assessment Program (OB COAP) and Smooth Transitions. Since its inception back in 2010, OB COAP has included data on community birth, specifically data submitted by MAWS members. At the time, many licensed midwives in Washington were already voluntarily contributing their data to MANA Stats. Recognizing the value of having data on planned home and birth center outcomes captured in the same database as hospital data, but seeking to reduce the data burden on community midwives, MAWS entered into a data-sharing agreement with the MANA Division of Research and FHCQ that allowed MAWS member data to be exported from MANA Stats into OB COAP. There are now over 14,000 community birth records in OB COAP.
MAWS members’ participation in OB COAP was a highly significant opportunity, unique to our state, and represented an unprecedented collaboration between hospital-based clinicians and community- based midwives. A landmark study was published in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology in November 2021, analyzing over 10,000 planned home and birth center births in the OB COAP database between 2015 and 2020. The study, co-authored by midwives and obstetricians, demonstrated the excellent outcomes that can be achieved when midwives are well-integrated into the health care system.
In 2018, shortly after the MANA Division of Research announced its departure from MANA, midwifery leaders in Washington state began working with the Foundation for Health Care Quality to build a comprehensive data repository that would enable ALL community-based midwives, in Washington and beyond, to collect their data alongside hospital data for the purpose of both quality improvement and research. In February 2024, FHCQ announced that Dr. Melissa (Missy) Cheyney, and Dr. Marit Bovbjerg, would be co-directing the CBDR. Both Marit and Missy have extensive experience working with midwives as community birth researchers.
To learn more about the Community Birth Data Registry (CBDR), and to enroll, click here.
Follow the links below to learn more about MANA Stats, and to enroll.
RCW 18.50.102 and WAC 246-834-370 do not specify a particular database that licensed midwives in WA must use, however, the law does require midwives to submit their data to “a state or national research organization approved by the Department of Health.” Historically, there were two DOH-approved repositories: MANA Stats, the national midwifery database once affiliated with the Midwives’ Alliance of North America (now dissolved); and the Perinatal Data Registry or PDR (American Association of Birth Centers).
Now there is a third approved data repository, the Community Birth Data Registry (CBDR) at the Foundation for Health Care Quality (FHCQ). FHCQ is a non-profit, neutral entity, based in Seattle, that houses a suite of programs centered around quality improvement and patient safety, including the Obstetrical Care Outcomes Assessment Program (OB COAP) and Smooth Transitions. Since its inception back in 2010, OB COAP has included data on community birth, specifically data submitted by MAWS members. At the time, many licensed midwives in Washington were already voluntarily contributing their data to MANA Stats. Recognizing the value of having data on planned home and birth center outcomes captured in the same database as hospital data, but seeking to reduce the data burden on community midwives, MAWS entered into a data-sharing agreement with the MANA Division of Research and FHCQ that allowed MAWS member data to be exported from MANA Stats into OB COAP. There are now over 14,000 community birth records in OB COAP.
MAWS members’ participation in OB COAP was a highly significant opportunity, unique to our state, and represented an unprecedented collaboration between hospital-based clinicians and community- based midwives. A landmark study was published in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology in November 2021, analyzing over 10,000 planned home and birth center births in the OB COAP database between 2015 and 2020. The study, co-authored by midwives and obstetricians, demonstrated the excellent outcomes that can be achieved when midwives are well-integrated into the health care system.
In 2018, shortly after the MANA Division of Research announced its departure from MANA, midwifery leaders in Washington state began working with the Foundation for Health Care Quality to build a comprehensive data repository that would enable ALL community-based midwives, in Washington and beyond, to collect their data alongside hospital data for the purpose of both quality improvement and research. In February 2024, FHCQ announced that Dr. Melissa (Missy) Cheyney, and Dr. Marit Bovbjerg, would be co-directing the CBDR. Both Marit and Missy have extensive experience working with midwives as community birth researchers.
To learn more about the Community Birth Data Registry (CBDR), and to enroll, click here.
Follow the links below to learn more about MANA Stats, and to enroll.
For more information about the Perinatal Data Registry (PDR), click here.
For more information about MANA Stats Plus, click here.
For more information about MANA Stats Plus, click here.
Banner photo by Charlee Haller, used with permission.